THE TORCH: THE #1 WORLDWIDE BRAND IN COMBAT ENTERTAINMENT COVERAGE - OVER 250 MILLION VIEWS & LISTENS PER YEAR REREACHING MORE FANS EVERY WEEK THAN ANY OTHER INDEPENDENT SOURCE • VIA THE WEB, MOBILE, PRINT NEWSLETTER, AND ITUNES
One of the chief complaints for Strikeforce broadcasts on Showtime has been the policy of not airing any preliminary card fights when time permits, and instead opting to cut off more than one broadcast with time remaining on their allotted broadcast slot. Well, for their April 17th return to CBS at least, that may change.
Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker told MMAJunkie this week that they will be taping one of the preliminary card bouts to act as the fill in should one of the scheduled three Title fights end quickly. It will be the first time they've done so.
No preliminary card bouts are known as of yet, so until that information comes out it's entirely unknown what the night's possible fourth bout could be. Strikeforce: Nashville airs live on CBS beginning at 10PM ET on CBS with a tape delay on the west coast. The event is headlined by a Middleweight Title bout between Jake Shields and Dan Henderson, and features a Light Heavyweight Title bout between Gegard Mousasi and Muhammed "King Mo" Lawal and a Lightweight Title bout between Gilbert Melendez and Shinya Aoki on the televised card.
Penick's Analysis: This is a smart decision, and one that they definitely need to have as a consideration with three Title fights on the card. If one or two of the Title fights goes short that leaves a lot of time to fill when they're scheduled for five rounds each, they need to have this fight ready to go or they've either got extra time to fill without a fight airing on the broadcast or the risk of the card ending extremely early with nothing more to air. They should consider taping more than just one bout, however, as it won't help them if a) the taped prelim isn't any good, or b) if that one fight itself takes too much time to allow them to air it anyway.
ALERT: Every Tuesday night, listen to the MMATorch Livecast from 9-10:30 p.m. ET or listen now to the most recent shows by clicking here. Listen live this coming Tuesday as Jamie Penick, Rich Hansen, and Matt Pelkey discuss the latest MMA happenings. Online listen at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/mmatorch or call into the show at 646-716-8090 to either just listen or participate.
"There's still a large contingent of people, that they just want to see these guys almost die, or the other guy almost die and come back, and sometimes fights are like that. Certainly they are. But sometimes you get technical masterpieces too, and to hate a beautiful, technical fight - you're not really a fight fan...
Diaz has a granite chin, possesses perhaps the best recovery in the sport, his pace and conditioning are second to none and he sets records with the volume of his punches almost every time he steps into the cage. Nick Diaz is simply designed to fight the way he fights, and not many other fighters are...
"There was a lot of poison going on around there and I'm really disappointed because we had a good thing going. It was a good thing and I think people's egos got in the way. Well, not people just Javier, his ego got in the way, and too many cameras in the gym and him trying to build himself up and his brand, his AKA brand...
PART OF THE USA TODAY UFC GROUP